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I've been playing SC1 since it came out on the DC (I still play it now) and I've been playing SC2 since my arcade first got it.

I've played with the best in the nation, and the best in Southern CA, and I still do to this day, we can't get enough matches, we always stop around 100 or so games whenever we do decide to play.

Anyway, the point of this thread is to help people who want to get serious about SC1/2 or impress their friends with new moves and new ways of playing, one of the reasons why I love SC1/2 is because like most fighting games you're restricted with a certain playing style for that character, but SC2 and MvC2 (Marvel vs. Capcom 2) are the only two games where you can actually develope your own style, and give you a lot more flexibility with what you can do. So you can always be fresh, and consitantly evolve your playing style by easily weeding out your weakpoints. And what makes SC2 such a great fighting game, imo, its easy to get in to and its in depth once you get into it, also its a fighting game that's not based on combos put on faking out your opponent and exploiting their weaknesses.

Since this a big game, I'll probably post tips on a few characters every now and then, but right now, I'll take any questions about terms, ideas, etc. etc. or if anyone living in the South Bay California wants to play, I'm always down.

Some say shes Indonesian because of the father and mother names, but others say, shes from Philippines because of her attack moves and even her physical features and skin tone.
Err...maybe, its both..its just a hypothetical character.

And it should be pronounce TA (Ta from TAR-"very short ta"...) and LIM (sounds exactly like a chinese surname...sorry, can't think of a better one)

Ah! The classic Nightmare/Siegfried~! The "Gatts" of the game. Thats the only reason why I used him in SC1 Anyway, Nightmare is like Bryan from Tekken 4, a power house that are just insanely easy to use.

If you use Nightmare you need to abuse his d/f+(B), B move. That is absolutely his best move ever, its fast, it breaks attacks like a bitch, and the damage off those two Bs is insane for a two hit combo. In fact, DTN (Dan the Nightmare) beat my friend Semi at the SC2 finals at Evolution last year, and all he did was the d/f+(B),B of course everyone flamed him for not being a good player, and cheap ass. Which is totally the opposite, imo since he was great at evade and GIing (Guard Impacting) and he landed it 90% of the time, but anyway.

d/f+(B) is the move in which he does a wierd uppercut, and anything in perenthesis like that means to hold down the button, so d/f+(B) would be down-forward + B and hold it. When you hold B he goes into his knight stance, and pressing B again will make him drop his sword on the person, we call that the lumberjack. So if you keep lumberjacking the hell out of people no one will ever play you again. But that's a great move that you should work in a lot.

Somepeople like to go d/f+(B), K, B, which basically all he does is knee you then you drop the sword, but the problem with that is the B followup isn't gurantee'd anymore because once you get hit in mid-air people can airglide, even though its REALLY hard to airglide out of that dropping sword, the possiblity is there and its not worth the 9 points of damage imo.

If you want "OMG all that connects!?" type reactions, then do f/d+(B),A, d+A+B. You do the basic liftup but with the A he swings his sword around himself twice, hitting them twice in the air, the d+A+B is basically him jumping and falling on you with his sword, and the d+A+B is sometimes gurantee'd but its a really cool combo if it all connects.

Another great "O_O" reaction with Nightmare is the CH (Counter Hit) off of his f+K, which we lovingly call the Mackhand. When he punches you in the face, the CH is when he punches and the person goes flying backwards and end up on the ground. As soon as you get the CH, just do b+B and TAP B, don't hold out it down, just tap it. And yes its 100% gurantee'd on EVERYONE.

Nightmare used to be a nightmare in the D verison of the arcade game, along with Talim, his ff+B and Talim's cheapass while sidestepping+A+B (I think) were the only two moves in the game that were unavoidable, you couldn't step it, it was a safe as hell move, you couldn't GI it, you couldn't even see it coming. You could basically ff+B all day long with Nightmare and win, it was a foolproof move, but now its more balanced out, but its still fast
and he still almost sidesteps everything, if you ever want to advance or position someone into a certain area ff+B is your friend, and its also good for stopping people who love to rush you down, he'll sidestep the incoming attacks, not as foolproof as it used to be, but his best move for people that love the rushdown.

Do you enjoy GIing? Do you ever get into burst fights? (Bursting is when you keep GIing back and forth) then Nightmare has one move specifically made for a post-GI move, its his f+B~B, the swiggly line (~) means you tap the next button right away. So f+B~B would be forward+B then B again immedately after. It delays long enough for the person's GI not to land and you get a free hit, its his best post-GI move.

If your back is ever to the ringout, just do Nightmares, d/b+B on a CH it'll lift them up and throw them out. Classic.

Nightmare's WSS+B+K (WWS = While sidestepping) is a GREAT sidestepping move, you'll basically go almost directly behind the person in a flash, and be in a knight stance, if you SS downward and do the B+K you get the resting sword knight's stance out it, and its a step up for a free K, his K off his resting sword knight stance = so freakin' awsome, cause it comes out FAST and on a NORMAL hit, they pretty much go flying arcoss the screen. And on a CH you get a double over stun (DOS) which means they'll hold their stomach and slowly fall over, during that time you get a free hit, usually everyone does the lumberjack, but see what suits you.

Tips about Nightmare: Nightmare is a really easy character to master, and he's not too shabby, a lot of "pros" don't like to use Nightmare's stance as they "make him predictable" which is totally makes Nightmare NOT fun to play as and he's not that predicable, imo. His stances can be lethal if mixed up correctly in certain situations, Nightmare's f+A is an awsome "get out of my face" move, and if you hold A he goes into his resting sword knight stance, which setups up that awsome K, so if they block the first move, immeditately tap K that will get them, even if they block the K, you're still safe, since you recover quickly. Nightmare is a lot of fun if you take the time to chain up his stance and preform wild combos and chains, through his stances, but if you use all those moves I've mentioned, used correctly, no one will ever play with you again. Another tip you get a crumble over stun (COS) out of his d/f+K on a CH, when that happens you can do b+B (tap it) for a gurantee'd followup.

As for Raphael he's considered "low tier" (meaning he sucks) he's just above Yun Sung. Raph was the first character I used in SC2 and he's my favorite to play, he only has two things going for him, his hcf+B and his evades, he has like 7-8 stances (not joking) and they all pretty much look the same, but each one has different properities. And you nailed on the head when you said they become to predictable. For a fencer, Raph has really horrible A,A and he has no cancels execpt out of his ff+A+B which makes me sad, even his d/f+B doesn't pick up, only on a CH. I would say he's cheap JUST for his hcf+B because it does break everything and it almost has across the screen reach + it comes out fast like a bitch. Also if you do his evade (A+K for low to mid, and B+K for high to mid) you can tap B to hit them, hold it for a second, then let it go, you automatically do a lunge (the hcf+B) and it is gurantee'd but the timing needs to be perfect, those two alone = cheap. Plus his evades and lunge become useless against really fast characters, like Taki or Talim, and you're forced to rely a lot on his A~B hit and his very little mix ups. But if you take the time to really learn him, yes he becomes incrediably cheap, his recovery off most of his moves is so-so but he's defintetly not safe, if any of his moves get blocked.

Heh, no problem~! I'm just glad the info from my countless hours/matches actually benefits someone, I think SC2 gets regarded as a "simple" game by a lot of people so they don't really see the depth of it. I mean when I first got SC1 and played it I never knew you could GI until I played part 2. But no problem, like I said, Nightmare is easy to master, you'll get those moves in no time with practice. As long as you have fun, that's what matters.

Link's is that he played Ocernia of Time and it took him to the SC universe and he decided to fight for some reason.

Spawn's I don't know.

Heihachi was training with Kuma when he found some shards in the mountains, he passes out and wakes up in the SC universe, and being the bad ass old man he is, he basically said "Screw these guys I'm gonna beat their asses with my bare-fist Old Man Mishima style karate and steal their shit."

I've been playing Astaroth a lot lately, and I never realized how much of a tactical person he is, I think he's the most tactical character in the whole game, might post some stuff tomorrow.

I still have Soul Calibur 1 on the Dreamcast, may be all scratches but still works great. Also got the PS2 version of Soul Calibur 2, quicker and more fun, more intense.

I'm considered as an above average player, I can pretty much use any character pretty well. But wouldn't know special attacks or chain moves for all. I would suggest playing all the modes, complete the game, go to practice and see the command list. Have lots of people to play against, it will help you bone your skills. The AI can only do so much for you. I mainly play as Edgemaster or Inferno in SC1, and Charade in SC2. Why you may ask, if you stick with one character, your oponent may catch on your style, but by switching characters each round, they won't know what to expect from you. Then again that might backfire if you're stuck with a character you can't use. Mainly use Nightmare, Mitsurugi, and Cervantes.

Question: Is Raphael really cheap? It seems he has some ridiculous fast attacks and quick recovery. But I managed to defeat some of these Raphael players because they became too predictable.

I find him cheap. Though, maybe that's because I'm really just an average player. Whenever my friend, who I would usually consider worse than me, uses Raphael, I can't seem to win. He's got that one attack, I'm not sure of the button combination- that quick-stabing thing, which he can just repeat over and over and over. And if I get knocked down, I get back up and it starts over again. Meh.

I never actually played SC1, just Soul Edge(Soul Blade? which was it?) in the arcades about 5 years ago.

But anyways, I've been trying to get better with Ivy, because I like her fighting style, but not having all too much luck. Any tips?

I'm not very good with Ivy, but I strongly checking out the command list in practice mode, because it shows you the moves. Then enable the AI to fight with you so can get used to pulling of moves during combat.

As for Raphael, most if not all his moves include side stepping. Barely any kick combos though. I usually find using a person with long range (Nightmare), and side stepping effective during combat. Just try blocking and dodging, if you can master Gaurd Block, you'll have a huge advantage over him.

sperry- Ahh~! Another Ivy fan! Ivy has the best range of ALL characters, and you can easily keep them at that range at all times, if you use her correctly. Ivy's power is at midrange, although is she definetly good in close quarters, but she's still at a huge disadvantage. Ivy's power isn't really in her single moves, but her combo of moves. Her combos, TAKE OFF A LOT, almost to Astaroth level of damage.

If there's anything, ANYTHING you need to know about Ivy are these two moves:

d+A+B, u/f+B+K: The d+A+B is her slamming her sword down into your skull, alone this move has no practical usage, kinda slow, and does average damage, so why use it? Well for the other half of the combo! Because her d+A+B CH bounces the opponent in the air. Which is called a bounce counter. And while the opponent is in the air, just do u/f+B+K and he'll snatch them out of the air and bring them down for a TON OF DAMAGE. Practice the timing and doing the move, its awsome.

8wr_u or d+(B): Ohh, looks greek, doesn't it? 8rw= 8 Way Running (or sidestepping), u/d is either up or down, so while your sidestepping up or down hit B and hold it. This will launch your opponent up in the air, and keep you in one of Ivy's stances(Spiral Tribute stance). This is where it gets tricky, as soon as you have the whip spinning over your head, hit A and this will bring the whip around you, and hit your opponent in the air, putting you into another Ivy stance (Serpents Embrace stance), then tap B (don't hold it, tap it) if you do it perfectly, the whip will roll out and hit the opponent on the ground~! ALL of it CONNECTS! About a good 90ish% of the time, if timed right, but good opponents will get out of the last hit by ground GIing (guard impacting) how to prevent this? Simply hold down B hit them with the unblockable damage (which does TONS more).

Lets say they block 8wr_u/d+B, are you in trouble? No! Ivy has a a trick up her sleeve! The K in that stance comes out EXTREMELY fast and on a CH it creates a DOS (double over stun) so basically the K will almost catch any unsespecting player that thinks you're open, if you get the stun, just hit A+B and you'll get a guarentee'd free hit (unless they shake out of the stun, which you can do, you can shake out of ANY DOS, but not CS).

Now for other goodies:

u+A+B,A: This will make you spin around, hitting the person mid, then low then mid again, and leaves them in the air, the two best follows up are: hcb+B (you can hold down the B to go into that Serpents Embrace stance if you wanted to) and f,f+A. The hcb+B does more damage, but its not gaurentee'd since they can just airglide out of the second hit, the f,f+A is is used by almost everyone because its a gurantee'd hit (but not as fun as the hcb+B )

Ivy's Serpent Embraced Stance (hcb+(B)): This is a fun stance, that has two really effective moves, A,A,A and d+A. Her triple A move comes out like fast and it juggles the opponent in the air, and if timed right you can get a free d+B+K for a nice amount of damage. Her d+A is special grab that trips the opponent and does really nice damage. Also Ivy has an awsome unblockable in that stance also A+B. Its mid and goes 360 and extends FAARRRRRR its one of those "deer in the headlights" type moves in which if you mix in well, people won't know what to do and end up low blocking an unblockable. Fun.

Ivy's unblockables are slow but they make it up in range, so make good use of all of them. For example hcb+A is like another 360 long range unblockable but its high so people can duck it, but if used right you can really mess a guy up.

To summon suffering or not to summon suffering, that is the question..: I don't but I'm learning too. It does add another dimenson to your playing style but it takes a lot of practice and buffering abilities (Buffering: meaning inputting the commands for another move while inside one move. i.e. during Ivy's uA+B,A I'll start inputting the commands for the SS so when I get out of the animation all I need to do is hit A+B and she'll do it instantly.) but its NOT nesscary to be a good Ivy player.

Ivy has powerful kicks, seriously all her kicks = awsome. b+K is a FAST and GREAT ringout kick, d/b+(K) is a GREAT post GI move, if held down all the way gives you a CS, for a free d+A+B or whatever move! Great for punishing GI freaks!

Find out what goes into what stance, because Ivy is really a deep character, and I'm too sleepy right now to list them all So practice her stances and incorporate those moves, I'll post some more stuff but I think that's enough info for now, if you have any questions let me know.

I play SC2 too.
Only at home on my Xbox, though. I'm not a great player, but I guess I'm decent.

I play mostly Taki, but sometimes I like to play with Seung Mina and Talim. Lately I've been mixing in a lot of Nighty too and damn, he really is easy as hell to play. He's not slow as hell like Asta, but still packs a punch and has a great range!

I don't really know what works againt human players, since my only human opponent is my sister and she isn't too great.

Anyway, I'll list some Taki moves that seem to work really well against a computer opponent.

The one move that the computer doesn't seem to be able to avoid, ever, seems to be B+K, A (Stalker, A). That's where Taki jumps over his opponent and slashes him/her in the back while she lands. I don't think the computer has ever avoided that when I do it. Estimating the range of the jump can be tricky, but it'll get easier with practice. A great way to get a guaranteed hit on the opponen, but Taki recovers very slowly from that move so a mistake will be a really bad thing for you. (Note that some attacks can hit you in the air. Iv'e heard that experienced Ivy players will easily bring any stalker happy Taki down, repeatedly)

Taki's possession stance (PO) offers some great moves and it should be used frequently. PO, B results in a fast vertical hit that hits high normally, but also seems hit opponents that are trying to get up after being knocked down. Very fast, very lethal and it stuns and knocks down if it connects.

Another one is PO, A. Taki first moves to the left very quickly and then jumps at her opponent and does a high (I think) horizontal slash. The movement to the side dodges pretty much any vertical attack and the slash is quite powerful and launches the opponent to the side.

PO, A+B is nice when you want to throw your opponent out of the ring. Taki grabs both her daggers and whirls them around in her hands and does a powerful horizontal hit. This can be dodged by sidestepping to the right and it's a bit slower than PO, B or PO, A, but it also deals good damage and sends the opponent flying a long way backwards. Soul charging makes this a guard breaking move, but I never use soul charge anyway.

Note that Taki can't block while in possession and all possession moves have horrible recovery.

Another great move is f+A+K (alternatively you can do f,f+K, but f+A+K is faster to input). Looks a lot like break dancing where Taki crashes her legs on her opponent. Has a great range, is fast and deals good damage if both hits connects and as an added bonus it tech crouches (dodges high attacks). Unfortunately it hits special mid, so it can be blocked both low and high.

Takis Windroll (WR) to either side (u/d+B+K) is a great way to avoid attacks and get out of dangerous situations. This move also tech crouches. u/d+B+K, b+A is a nice combo where taki imeddiately stabs her opponent after the WR. u/d+B+K, bd+A is the same, except the slash now hits low instead of mid and Taki automatically goes into PO afterwards. Both of these moves can be avoided by sidestepping and the computer frequently does so. That's why I've started to use u/d+B+K, u/d+K. This time Taki finishes the WR with the same move as 8wr_u or d+K. It's very, very fast and can't be sidestepped.

If you want to try something advanced, you can try fooling your opponent with PO, A+B+K (Exorcism). That's a pretty slow unblockable with medium range and decent damage. It can be instantly cancelled to blocking position, so if you think you have the reflexes, you can lure your opponent into attacking you. If he doesn't, he'll get seriously hurt. I've also read that you can use Exorcism to reduce the delay between basic poking combos. In order to do that, however, you need to be able to do PO, A+B+K and cancel it insanely fast, and my fingers just can't keep up with that.

SC2... me and about 15 other people play the arcade version of it almost every day during break times between classes. I came in second in an arcade tournament and lost by only a little (it was a really close match, me and my opponent decided to use Charade and for the last "final battle" best 2 of 3 bout, and we both had characters we barely used and it got down to where the one who had the last hit won). I'm personally a Nightmare, Mitsurugi, Maxi, Taki, Cassandra, Yunsung, Cervantes, Xianghua, and a Raphael character user (in this order from best on downwards), but I'm all about using Nightmare... I mean he's got 7 soul charge unblockable attacks for crying out loud (which can be guard impacted though... I think), but then again, Ivy has a whole lot of regular unblockable moves (the most for a single character I believe next to Cervantes).

Raphael in a sense is cheap, but he's to linear in his attacks which can make it easy to predict his moves or guard impact them. Keeping your distance or working on your sidesteping and evading moves works pretty well against him since he is only a mid-distance fighter (but watch out for his horizontal moves when he does that). He's also quick, but Talim and Taki are faster (and they evade better too). Also, most to almost all the Raph users will do the f+B,B,B attack or will have to subcome to it, but guarding the first two and then GIing the third will get them easily since the third one stalls a little after the first two.

For using Ivy, you have to try and keep a certain amount of distance from your opponent if you want to use her effectively, but she also has some good mid range attacks as well. There are also certain chain combos that if you can interlink them, they take a hell lotta damage, but it takes some practice and timing.

Nightmare, oh boy. My personal favorate. A great distance fighter who is also quick too depending on which flowing moves are done. f,f+B is just the greatest with him, but so are his charge unblockables (3rd level charge, or when a character does his soulcharge to it's fullest extent). For most of these though, I would suggest keeping your distance from your opponent after you knock him/her down (enough to where you have a decent distance where they can not reach you when they roll towards you).

Not only that, but apparantly for some of the charge unblockable attacks, if you miss them when you do the attack, you can easily do a follow up and get a charged unblockable (ex: if you do the Knight lower stance A+B and miss, quickly follow up with the f,f+B and you'll get the charged unblockable; but no more after that, so don't miss the second one).

His sidestep A+A attacks are good to, but try not to follow up with it by pressing B after the A+A hits, it can easily be guard impacted. Also, if you get a guard impact on your opponent, immediately as fast as possible do the f+A (it is so fast that not many people can react fast enough to Guard Impact it back against you).

I'll be happy to answer any other questions if they arise. It's good to see others interested in this game.

Strider Lee - Ah! I know the feeling, about seeing new players, I wish I could play you and your friends, I'm always looking for new blood. And I do believe Ivy has the most next to Cervantes... but not a lot of people use any of his other unblockables other then the only one that makes him pretty fucked up. The real "Deer in the headlights" unblockable, his d/b+A~(B). And his b,b+A+B. And yeah SC unblockables are GIable. Atleast Raphael's lunge is.

Archuka - Great Taki info, but I wouldn't do the B+K stalker move on players, esp. Ivy and Astaroth players, as you already mentioned. But all the Taki players I've played (sadly) are the Taki players that play Taki the way they actually intended her to played as, just a pocession/excorism canceling whore, once you memorize the mixes up and get into a rhythm there's no stopping you, seriously. She's a machine, she won't stop. The only character I see having an easy time against Taki are (surprisingly) Astaroth players that are really good GIers. GI, then command throw = punishment. And I think all of Astaroth's command throws are 6-7 frames so they're really hard to break out of the blue, throw in crouch throws for people who duck, and you got yourself one anti-Taki guy.

Hmmm ... fairly average SCII player here living in a housefull of scrubs. I have thus become scrub-slayer general to the gaming masses (well, at least to my student house).

At the moment I think my favourite character is Maxi, simply because he's so fun to use and his facility for dashy pokes, unpredictable h/m/l mixups and stance roulette stuff makes him ideal for my style of play. The fact that his second costume looks kind of like Pat Sharp also works in his favour. Talim is also great, slippery, evasive little minx that she is, and Nightmare is always entertaining in a ludicrously buff shortarse with a huge sword kind of way.

I had SCII for my xbox once and a friend of me has it for the gamecube.
I kind of specialised on Taki. Of course, that was a descision based on the looks in the first place, but her fighting style is really what I prefer in those games.
She can perform great looking jumping/flying attacks and sweeps, kind of like Kunimitsu from TTT (another fav om mine, though weak ). Also some nice dodges and stuff... A good figth with Taki is allways a good show.
Im not that good at the game, I barely mastered a fluid fighting style with Taki using about 50% of all her moves.

I also think Ivy is the strongest character in SCII. Im not sure about that, because she does a lot of stuff with her whip that will never hit you, but looks extremly dangerous. Once youre able to look trough a those weird moves she should be a lot easier to beat. On the other hand she can hit you from almost every place on the screen whenever you let your guard down. My friend specialised on Ivy and as hes used to those crappy came cube controllers I just cant get along with... were an even match.